@phdthesis{44783,
  author          = {Kershner, Tiffany Lynne},
  pages           = {261},
  school          = {Indiana University},
  title           = {The Verb in Chisukwa: Aspect, Tense, and Time (Malawi)},
  year            = {2002},
  abstract        = {This dissertation presents a detailed, comprehensive description and analysis of the verb system—including verb types, Aktionsarten, grammatical aspect, and tense marking in both simple and complex (periphrastic) constructions-in Chisukwa, an endangered Bantu language spoken in northern Malawi. Data were obtained through fifteen months of fieldwork in three communities of speakers in northern Malawi. Chisukwa is of interest for the study of tense/aspect not only because of its multiple tense/aspect markers and verb categories, but also because the expression of tense interacts with modality. Hence, the expression of temporal relations in Chisukwa is organized and encoded in two separate template types, one which is labeled the Actuality Template, one the Non-Actuality Template. The analysis developed here differentiates the tense, aspect, or mood (TAM) markers in these different templates, showing how they interact with different verb types, and the roles they play in narratives. In addition, the analysis provides a categorization of verbs into different aspectual classes as well as a separate account of Aktionsarten, marked both morphologically and lexically. In the analysis of tense, simple tense configurations have, commonly, been envisaged as locating an event along a timeline with respect to some reference point. At first glance, Chisukwa appears to resemble other languages in this respect, and certainly other Bantu languages, in having multiple past and future tenses that can be arrayed linearly in this way. However, close analysis both of complex forms and of the interaction between different TAM configurations in narratives provides evidence that the TAM system of Chisukwa cannot satisfactorily be represented solely on a linear timeline differentiated by various degrees of remoteness. As my analysis shows, the organization and semantics of these elements is more complex. In this dissertation, then, I complement the linear approach to tense/aspect analysis in Chisukwa with a non-linear solution in which temporal relations are encoded into two conceptually distinct domains: an active performative domain encoding what is subjectively near the speaker and a non-active dissociative domain, a projection of what is subjectively distant from the speaker's point of view.},
  adviser         = {Botne, Robert},
  bestfn          = {africa\kershner_chisukwa2002v2_o.pdf},
  besttxt         = {ptxt2\africa\kershner_chisukwa2002v2_o.txt},
  cfn             = {africa\kershner_chisukwa2002_o.pdf},
  degree          = {PhD},
  delivered       = {africa\kershner_chisukwa2002_o.pdf},
  digital_formats = {PDF 8.23Mb image-only PDF},
  fn              = {africa\kershner_chisukwa2002.pdf, africa\kershner_chisukwa2002_o.pdf, africa\kershner_chisukwa2002v2_o.pdf},
  hhtype          = {specific_feature},
  inlg            = {English [eng]},
  isbn            = {9780493963945},
  lgcode          = {Chisukwa = Ndali [ndh]},
  macro_area      = {Africa},
  source          = {DAI-A 63/12, p. 4293, Jun 2003},
  src             = {hh},
  subject         = {LANGUAGE, LINGUISTICS (0290)},
  umi_id          = {3075951}
}